The surprise is still beating in the hearts of both Barcelona and rival fans alike after the Catalan club fell to Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night in the UEFA Champions League.
Xavi Hernandez, meanwhile, is blaming nobody but the referee for the second leg of their tie, István Kovács, for how everything turned out.
The Romanian official made some questionable calls in the game after sending Ronald Araujo off in the first half. Many have risen to his defence for the calls he made but Barcelona fans, led by one of their biggest fans and managers, Xavi, are not cutting him any slack.
The belief is that PSG stood no chance against Barcelona especially after the Catalan club’s 3-2 win at Parc de Princes. Their first half performance was also evidence of the coaching Xavi did, but Araujo’s red card turned the game on its head.
In the wake of everything, Xavi, who was sent off by Kovács for dissent, minced no words in blaming the official for his club’s misfortune.
“We are upset and angry,” the manager explained to Spanish television. “Araujo’s play marked the tie completely. It is not a red card, for me it is not. It’s not good for football to have 10 players.”
“With 10 players it is very complicated. The work of an entire season is finished by a referee’s decision,” Xavi went on. “I would have liked to play 11 against 11. It was an unnecessary sending off. I told the referee that he was a disaster.”
Asked about his sending off, Xavi insisted that his reaction was natural and that he told the referee that “he didn’t understand the match” and that he was “very bad”.
“You already know that I don’t like to talk about the referees, but it marked a knockout tie and I have to say it. We can’t be quiet about it” he insisted.”
Then he went on to speak about a decision that many Barcelona fans were not pleased about.
After Araujo’s sending off, he took off Lamine Yamal for Iñigo Martinez. It was a good decision to sacrifice an attacker for a defender but many preferred that attacker to be the goalscorer, Raphinha, instead.
Explaining his decision, Xavi said: “We wanted control and we already had Raphinha and [Robert] Lewandowski in attack.”
“We had the advantage first and clear chances to tie the match later, but with 10 players it was very difficult.”
